Two former officials convicted of bribery executed [Xinhua/China Daily]

With the CCP’s 52 code of ethics (中国共产党党员领导干部廉洁从政若干准则) in place since Feb 23, 2010, and Premier Wen Jiabao’s warning that corruption and inflation could have an “adverse impact” on the stability of power in China (See Inflation, corruption could hurt China: Wen [The Age/AFP]) it is perhaps no surprise that two former deputy mayors for China’s eastern cities of Hangzhou and Suzhou, Xu Maiyong and Jiang Renjie, were executed for embezzling and accepting bribes worth almost 300m yuan ($46m; £29m).

BEIJING – Two former vice mayors of east China’s cities of Hangzhou and Suzhou, Xu Maiyong and Jiang Renjie, were executed Tuesday morning for bribery, the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said.

The SPC approved the executions after reviewing both cases, Sun Jungong, a spokesman for the SPC, said during a press conference held in Beijing on Tuesday.

Xu used his official power to interfere with project contracts and to help companies and people obtain land, promotions and tax breaks while acting as chief of the Xihu District government, Party secretary of the district and mayor of Zhejiang Province’s city of Hangzhou, Sun said.

Xu sought and accepted a total of 145 million yuan (about 22.2 million US dollars) in bribes and embezzled another 53.59 million yuan from a state-owned property development firm.

In addition, Xu arranged the illegal return of 71.7 million yuan in land purchase payments to a property development firm in which he had a stake, Sun added.

Jiang took advantage of his position as deputy mayor of Jiangsu Province’s city of Suzhou to obtain benefits from real estate development projects for five companies, Sun said.

In return, Jiang took bribes, including more than 108 million yuan in cash, from property developers.

Xu was convicted of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power and sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of the city of Ningbo on May 12.

Jiang was convicted of bribery and sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of the city of Nanjing in April 2008.

Both Xu and Jiang appealed the courts’ decisions after their trials. Their appeals were rejected by higher courts.